Ghana Stock Exchange to Start Alternative Market in March

Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The Ghana Stock Exchange will start
a parallel market by March for small companies that have
potential to use the capital raised by selling shares for
growth, said General Manager Ekow Afedzie.

Businesses with a minimum capital of 250,000 cedis
($132,000), at least 20 shareholders and with one year of
published accounts will qualify to list on the Ghana Alternative
Market, he told reporters in the capital, Accra, today. The
exchange will have less stringent requirements for listing than
the main Ghanaian bourse, Afedzie said.

“We believe that in the long term this market would be key
to the growth of the economy,” Afedzie said.

Ghana’s Composite Index has expanded 23 percent this year,
outpacing a 4.9 percent gain in Morgan Stanley’s frontier
markets measure, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The
West African nation’s economy, the second-biggest in the region,
is forecast to grow 8.2 percent this year and 7.8 percent in
2013, according to the International Monetary Fund.

The stock exchange will start a revolving fund to cover
listing costs of companies on the alternative market, Afedzie
said. The African Development Bank has contributed $600,000 for
the fund, he said. Ghana’s Venture Capital Trust Fund is giving
$500,000 while the bourse will provide $50,000, according to
Afedzie.

“The fund will help companies entering the market to
postpone listing costs to a future time when they begin to make
profit,” he said.

Ghana’s Securities and Exchange Commission asked the
government to waive a 0.05 percent tax charged on companies to
list shares on the market, Director General Adu Anane Antwi told
reporters.

While dividends earned on the market are taxed at 8
percent, the SEC wants amounts of 200 cedis and below to be
exempt, Antwi said.